The Canary Cry
by Lauriverfanboy1
Summary: This is essentially a rewrite of Laurel Lives. What if Laurel didn't die after Damien Darhk stabbed, but rather, she was reborn? How might the Arrowverse be different if Laurel were still alive, especially the lives all those closest to her, particularly the life of Oliver Queen? As usual, this is Lauriver fic, though it is also a meta Laurel fic and takes place post Flashpoint.
1. Chapter 1

_Central City, 2 years ago_

"So mom, why exactly did you invite me to Central City?" Laurel asked her mother as she entered her mother's apartment, suitcase in hand.

"Well, I felt bad about we left things the last time I was in Starling City." Dinah said.

"You mean when you confessed to me that you knew that my boyfriend was cheating on me with Sara and you let them do it?" Laurel asked her sharply and she took more pleasure than she probably should've at seeing her mother flinch at those words.

"Yes Laurel. Thank you for reminding me of that." Dinah said just as sharply.

"So, you brought me out here to make amends?" Laurel asked.

"That and I figured that you could use a break from all the chaos in Starling City, especially with that vigilante running around." Dinah said as Laurel turned her attention to the TV.

"What's that?" Laurel asked as Dinah turned her head to the TV to see the news coverage of the Star Labs particle accelerator being turned on.

"It's just the news covering the launch of this particle accelerator thing that Star Labs has been working on. I don't really understand it, but anyways, why don't I take your stuff up to your room while you make yourself comfortable." Dinah said as she took her daughter's suitcase from her and let Laurel sit down while she left the room.

Laurel sat down at the kitchen table after getting herself a glass of water when suddenly the water began floating out of the glass, which caused Laurel to drop it in shock, causing it to shatter, right on her bare feet, causing her to scream in pain as some sort of energy flew the room and hit Laurel dead on, knocking her back and causing her to pass out.

* * *

 _Star City, Present_

Oliver was standing at Laurel's bedside in the hospital, still trying to believe what had just happened. Laurel Lance, what was probably the brightest part of his life, was dead. It couldn't be possible. It shouldn't. After all the pain Laurel has had to endure over the past 9 years, this shouldn't be how her story ends. She should've gotten her happy ending, dying peacefully in her sleep, not like this. In cold blood.

"Ollie, we need to go." Thea said to her brother, who refused to move as though he hadn't heard her.

"Oliver, did you hear me?" Thea asked when she noticed that her brother was checking Laurel's pulse.

"Thea, she has a pulse." Oliver said and that got Thea's attention, since it was clear that her brother was hallucinating.

"Oliver, that's not possible, she's dead. Trust me, I wish I could believe it." Thea said.

"Thea, I'm not hallucinating, check yourself." Oliver said.

Thea decided to humor her brother and did what he asked, only to be surprised to find that he was right. Laurel did have a pulse.

"She's alive." Thea said, looking at her brother wide-eyed as Laurel's heart rate monitor began to beep again, showing that her heart was beating.

"I'll go get the doctor." Thea said as she rushed out.

Oliver just stood there at Laurel's side, not believing what he was seeing and he'd seen plenty in his lifetime.

"Ms. Queen, can I ask what the meaning of this is?" Dr. Lamb asked as Thea dragged him in.

Rather than answering, Thea just pointed at Laurel's heart rate monitor, causing Lamb to see what she was seeing.

"How is this possible?" Lamb asked as he walked up to Laurel and checked her pulse and confirmed that she was alive.

"I don't know. The only thing I can think is that it's a miracle." Oliver said and he couldn't stop himself from smiling as Laurel's eyes opened and she took a deep breath.

"Oliver, what's going on, what are you staring at?" Laurel asked him, confused as she slowly sat up in bed.

"I'm staring at you. After all, it's not everyday you see someone come back to life. Even on this team. I'm used to it happening once or twice a year." Oliver said.

"I died." Laurel said, trying to wrap her head around that.

"Yeah, but it seems you share your sister's inability to stay dead." Oliver said, just to have Laurel smack him.

"Not funny Oliver. How am I alive?" Laurel asked.

"We're not sure, but we're going to have to run some tests on you to make sure you're really okay before we discharge you. Thankfully we haven't issued your death certificate yet, so nobody will even have to know you were dead." Lamb said as the door opened and Quentin entered, intending to see Laurel's face one last time before she was taken to the morgue, to but his delightful surprise, he found his daughter alive.

"Laurel." Quentin said.

Before Laurel could say anything, she found herself engulfed in super tight hug from her father that was making it hard for her to breathe.

"Dad, can't breathe." Laurel choked out, causing her father to sheepishly let go of her.

"Right, sorry about that." Quentin said.

"It's fine, I understand." Laurel said.

"What I don't understand is how you're alive. I was there when it happened, just 10 minutes ago in fact." Quentin said.

"We don't know how it happened either, but we do intend to find out." Oliver assured him.

"In the meantime, let's just enjoy the fact that Laurel is alive." Thea said and Quentin nodded since he had no arguments with that.


	2. Chapter 2

Even after Quentin and Thea had left for the night, Oliver had insisted on staying at Laurel's side all night, which she had no problems with, since considering what she'd said shortly before she'd died, Laurel knew they needed to have a conversation.

"So, before I died, I said some crazy things." Laurel said.

"Like how you told me that I was the love of your life?" Oliver asked her.

"Yeah. I wasn't thinking clearly." Laurel said.

Oliver smiled at her and said "Really, because you certainly didn't seem that way. Besides, I'm glad you said something, even if it was on your deathbed because it got me thinking."

"About what?" Laurel asked.

"That maybe it's a good thing that Felicity and I broke up." Oliver said.

"How so?" Laurel asked, not daring to hope.

"Because if they hadn't, I might've ended up spending my life with the wrong girl." Oliver said as he leaned and kissed her lips and Laurel felt the old spark between reignite into a blazing bonfire.

"So, that just happened." Laurel said when they broke apart.

"Yeah, it felt more right than any of the times I've done that with Felicity. In fact, this was the first kiss I've had in awhile that actually felt right to me." Oliver said.

"Maybe that's because like you said, you with the wrong girl." Laurel said.

"Maybe so. But maybe we should hold off until after we put Darhk in the ground before we try and see if there's still a chance we can make us work. After all, Darhk has enough leverage over me as it is I don't need to add more to it." Oliver said and Laurel nodded in agreement as Dr. Lamb came in the room with a vial and handed it to Oliver.

"I'm still not sure why you requested this, but here it is, a sample of Laurel's blood." Dr. Lamb said.

"Thank you. I'm just going to send it to a friend I have at Star Labs, see if they can use it to figure out what caused Laurel to regenerate so quickly, since her wound is gone and there isn't even a scar on her." Oliver said and Dr. Lamb nodded as he left the room.

"You think I might be a metahuman?" Laurel asked, since she knew that's why Oliver was sending the sample to Star Labs.

"I don't know Laurel, but I want to at the very least rule it out as a possibility." Oliver said and Laurel nodded in understanding, since while she hadn't told anyone this, but since she'd been in Central City the night the particle accelerator had exploded and the way she'd reacted after she'd been hit by the dark matter, the possibility of being a metahuman became more and more likely.

* * *

The next day, Laurel was visited by John and Laurel could tell he'd been up all night.

"You look terrible, though considering I'm the one in the hospital, I guess I don't really have much room to talk." Laurel said.

"I heard they're letting you out of here tomorrow." John said.

"Yeah, though I wish I could go now since there's nothing wrong with me. My injury is completely healed." Laurel said.

"Still, better safe than sorry." John said and Laurel decided to finally to say it.

"It's not your fault John." Laurel said.

"What?" John asked.

"My dying, it's not your fault. You had no idea that Andy was working with Darhk. You really believed that Andy had changed for the better." Laurel said.

"Laurel, Oliver warned me not to trust Andy, but I didn't listen to him. I was so blinded by Andy that I let him play me and you died because of it. Honestly, even now that I'm seeing it, I still can't fully believe it." John said.

"John, I don't blame you for what happened. We all have blind spots when it comes to family. Oliver's blind spot for his mother didn't let him see the truth about the Undertaking until it was almost too late. Thea let Malcolm into her life and even defended him against us and in return, he used her to help him become Ra's al Ghul. And me, well I used the Lazarus Pit to bring Sara back to life and even when everyone else told me to put her out of her misery, I didn't and Thea nearly died because of it." Laurel said.

"Yeah, nearly died. Laurel you died because I was too trusting of Andy and now I have to live with that." John said.

"Just like how I have to live with knowing that Tommy is dead because I refused to listen to you and Felicity about my mother until I had no other options but to. I know that maybe if I'd listened to you back then, maybe Tommy would still be alive today." Oliver said as he entered the room.

"Oliver, how do you live with that sort of pain?" John asked.

"The only thing that really helps is time. That's the other reason that I left after we defeated Ra's. I needed time away to fully process all that pain and guilt I'd been harboring for at least 3 years by getting away from the cause of it." Oliver said as John's phone rang.

"I gotta take this." John said as he headed outside.

"I never knew that Tommy's death still bothered you." Laurel said.

"Tommy's death is a result of my greatest failure to stop the Undertaking. When I came back after his death, I swore 2 things. One, that I'd never kill again unless I had to and two, that I'd never fail this city like I did in the Undertaking again. And now I have no choice but to break one vow in order to keep the other." Oliver said.

"You're going to kill Darhk aren't you?" Laurel asked.

"He's proven he can't be held in prison. I have to end him before he pulls off whatever it is that he's planning." Oliver said as John entered the room.

"What's wrong?" Oliver asked

"That was Lyla. Apparently all the other heads of Hive were just found dead." John said.

"Darhk's cleaning house." Oliver said.

"Yeah, Oliver how the hell are we going to proceed from here?" John asked.

"First, we wait till Laurel gets out of the hospital. Hopefully by then I'll have been able to get in touch with Constantine and then he can point me in the right direction to counteracting Darhk's magic and defeating him, once and for all." Oliver said.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, what's the plan now?" John asked as they all gathered in the bunker the day after Laurel was released from the hospital.

"First, why don't I bring Thea, Laurel and Felicity up to speed on the current situation." Oliver said as he pulled up images on the computer.

"Milo Armitage. SCPD found him in an alley outside Ellendale, and across town Phaedra Nixon." Oliver said.

"Ok. So what am I missing?" Felicity asked.

"They were both HIVE. You probably don't recognize Phaedra and Milo now that they're dead, or maybe you were too busy running for your life, but- They were with Darhk when he held you guys hostage." Laurel explained.

"And now they're dead." John said.

"What, so you think crazy-pants Lonnie Machin's back in town?" Thea asked.

"No. His grudge is against Darhk, not HIVE." Oliver said.

"You think Darhk is cleaning house?" John asked.

"Well, HIVE didn't lift a finger to break him out of Iron Heights. That was all Andy and Merlyn." Oliver pointed out and John winced again at being reminded of his brother's betrayal and Laurel winced remembering how she'd almost died that night.

"Ok. Well, if Darhk is settling scores, then now might be the time to hit him." John said.

"We have seen how powerful he is I can't risk losing anyone else. Especially someone who unlike Laurel, can apparently heal as quickly as they're injured." Oliver pointed out.

"Speaking of which, have you heard back from Star Labs yet?" Laurel asked.

"Yeah, Cisco confirmed it. You're a meta." Oliver said.

"Wait, Laurel's a metahuman?" Thea asked.

"Yeah, that's how I survived. I guess my powers were dormant until I died, which caused them to kick in and heal me apparently. I just wonder if healing is my only power." Laurel said.

"While we can have this discussion later, back to the topic of Darhk. We can't just sit on our hands, Oliver." John said.

"We're not just sitting on our hands, but before we do anything, we need to know that we can counteract his magic." Oliver said.

"Well, is that even possible?" Felicity asked.

I think it might be. I was finally able to get in touch with Constantine. He put me on to someone who he thinks may be able to teach me how to defend against Darhk's magic." Oliver said.

"Ok. Well, I'm not just saying this because I love "Harry Potter," but why are we not all taking those lessons?" Felicity asked.

"Well, it is easier said than done and apparently quite dangerous. So I have to go to Hub City for a day or two." Oliver explained.

Ok. In that case, can I take the weekend with Alex? Kind of wants to go away, clear our heads." Thea asked.

"That sounds like a good idea. I think that- actually, I think everyone should take a little time. Lay low but stay available, and we will deal with Darhk when I get back." Oliver said.

"Ok." Thea said as she got out her phone and walked out of the bunker.

* * *

After everyone else had left Oliver was packing his stuff when he heard someone approach him from behind.

He turned to see Laurel standing in the doorway.

"So you've been living down here?" Laurel asked.

"Well, since Felicity kicked me out of loft and I can't really afford a new place to live, it made the most sense. Besides, you know me, I don't need much." Oliver said.

"There was a time where you'd have anyone who even suggested that you lived like this locked up in an insane asylum." Laurel said, remembering how high maintenance Oliver used to be.

"Yeah well, I was a spoiled, over privileged brat back then. Now, I doubt I even needed the bed." Oliver said and Laurel chuckled.

"So, you come to see me off?" Oliver asked her.

"You were pretty stingy on the details about this "magic tutor" Constantine referred you to." Laurel said.

"It is sort of my M.O." Oliver reminded her.

"Don't talk to me like I'm other people. What has you so worried?" Laurel asked.

"Darhk's idol, the type of magic that he's using, I've seen it take good people and turn them dark, soulless, almost inhuman. The last person I saw use it, begged me to kill them in order to prevent that from happening to them.

"And you're afraid that's gonna happen to you?" Laurel asked.

"There's an argument to be made that I'm already there." Oliver said.

"That's not funny." Laurel said, assuming Oliver meant that as a joke.

"I'm not joking. Darhk killed you Laurel. The only reason you're alive is because your meta powers decided to activate. But all the same, there are no lengths I will not go to keep you safe from Darhk, to stop him from hurting anyone ever again, and I honestly don't know where that path will lead." Oliver confessed.

"I'm coming with you." Laurel said.

"Laurel." Oliver protested.

"I'm not letting you do this alone Oliver. Even if I can't learn this magic with you, I at least want to be there for support. Besides you've met me and you know that arguing with me is futile, I'm going with you, especially since you can't even afford a plane ticket." Laurel said.

"What about hotel reservations?" Oliver asked.

"I got us a room and yes it's one room, with points and I'm already packed. So, shall we?" Laurel asked.

"Why do I get the feeling that this is just so you can get some alone time with me?" Oliver asked.

"Hey, just because you wanted to wait until we take Darhk off the board to start anything between us doesn't mean I do. Besides, we both know the odds aren't exactly in our favor and I thought that we should at least be able to have one night to ourselves before we go to war." Laurel said.

"Fine, let's go." Oliver said, knowing that it was pointless to argue with her.


	4. Chapter 4

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Laurel asked Oliver as they entered an underground casino that Constantine had told Oliver to go to.

"High roller room." Oliver said as they entered said room.

"When you said that you'd found someone to teach you magic, I was thinking, like, a mountaintop or a hidden temple, not Hub City's premier underground casino." Laurel said.

"Well, with Constantine, I have learned to expect the unexpected. I'm betting on Fortuna. Now he was a little bit vague with the specifics." Oliver said as they heard jazz music play.

"How vague?" Laurel asked.

"He just said "Pitch game, first base, mate." See if you're worthy." Oliver said, the game part in a british accent.

"Well that's real helpful." Laurel said sarcastically as they made their way around the casino.

* * *

Eventually, they found their contact at a blackjack table, a woman named Esrin Fortuna.

"If you don't my me asking." Oliver began before Fortuna interrupted him.

"Why is an immortal shaman playing Blackjack in Hub City's premier underground casino?" Fortuna asked and Oliver nodded as Laurel absorbed what she'd just heard.

"Excuse me? Did you just say you're immortal?" Laurel asked.

Esrin smiled before saying "You see any wrinkles on my face?"

"Honestly Laurel, considering everything we've seen, including Vandal Savage and the Lazarus Pit, are you really that surprised of learning that immortality is real?" Oliver asked her.

"Fair point." Laurel conceded.

"I'm also a shaman. A shaman is someone who has influence in the world of good and evil spirits. Blackjack is just a hobby. This way." Fortuna said as she guided them towards the back of the casino.

"Planning on teaching me magic in the back room of a casino?" Oliver asked skeptically.

"You want to learn the dark arts, Mr. Queen, we cannot do that here." Fortuna said as they entered a new chamber that certainly wasn't a part of the casino.

"Whoa! Something tells me we're not in the casino anymore." Laurel said.

"We've left the casino behind, amor, and that plane of existence." Fortuna said.

"I've been in a chamber like this before on an island named Lian Yu." Oliver said.

"Yes. Lian Yu is a place of Nexus just like your home. Star City? Hmm. There's a Nexus chamber there, as well." Fortuna said.

"Wait what?"Laurel asked.

"You didn't think it was a coincidence that Damien Darhk chose that city?" Fortuna asked.

"You know Darhk?" Oliver asked.

"I wouldn't be much of a shaman if I didn't. Special brand of nasty loco that one is." Fortuna said and Oliver and Laurel both agreed.

"So if you know Darhk, why haven't you tried to end him?" Laurel asked her.

"That's not the way of things. We immortals tend to stay out of the affairs of men." Fortuna said as she took a closer look at Laurel.

"I sense something different about you. Your soul has a darkness in it, as if it has touched the Khushu idol, but was not absorbed. As though you were immune it's power. How is this possible?" Fortuna asked Laurel.

"Darhk killed me. The only reason I'm still alive is because I'm a metahuman who has regenerative healing powers that saved me." Laurel said.

"Interesting. That explains much, however, it appears that you have yet to access your true abilities." Fortuna said as she held out her hand and suddenly Laurel felt as though her throat and her arms were on fire.

"What did you do to her?" Oliver asked.

"I simply sped up the activation of her true powers so that you will have another asset your war against Damien Darhk. And fortunately, you also already have someone on your team who's immune to Darhk's magic, or at least his death touch." Fortuna said as the pain finally stopped for Laurel.

"What are you talking about?" Laurel asked.

"The magic of the Khushu idol cannot be used to take the life twice. Damien Darhk cannot use his magic to harm you again." Fortuna said.

"Now that's some good news, but can you teach me to do the same?" Oliver asked.

"Recognize this handsome gent?" Fortuna asked as she gestured to a very familiar looking idol on a pedestal.

"Darhk has a similar idol. It gives him his power." Oliver said.

"Uh-uh. It only channels it. Darhk's power comes from" Fortuna started.

"Death. The more people he kills, the more powerful he becomes." Oliver realized.

"Not just a pretty face this guy." Fortuna said with a smile.

"Yeah. Except Oliver's not gonna go kill a bunch of people just to be on the same level playing field as Darhk." Laurel said.

"All things have their opposite. Darhk draws his power from fear and death. Its opposite is light and hope, la Luz Del Alma, light of the soul. If you can channel la Luz Del Alma, you will be able to repel Darhk's magic." Fortuna said.

"Then that is what I'm here to learn." Oliver said.

"I wish it were just that easy. If the darkness inside you outweighs the light, instead of repelling Darhk's magic, you will end up fueling it. You will only make him more powerful." Fortuna warned.

"That's a risk I have to take. Darhk nearly took the most important person in the world from me. I have to stop him no matter what." Oliver said.

"Then shall we begin?" Fortuna asked.


	5. Chapter 5

"I'll hit you with a low dose of Darhk's magic, and then we'll take it up from there." Fortuna said.

"Don't I need an idol or a totem?" Oliver asked her.

"The tattoo Constantine gave you does many things. Are you ready?" Fortuna asked him.

"Yeah." Oliver said.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Laurel asked.

"It doesn't matter if I want to do this, I have to do this." Oliver said.

"You'll probably want to take a few steps back, amor." Fortuna said and Laurel nodded.

"Hmm? Two sides of you- darkness, light. Focus on the light." Fortuna said as they attempted it and to everyone's surprise, Oliver's eyes glowed brightly as he repelled Fortuna's dark magic.

"Good, but that might be, as they call, beginner's luck, so let's kick it up a notch or two, hmm. The darkness and light are within you. In truth, you are only fighting yourself. The friends you've failed, the people you've killed, they have no place in this. Don't give in. Cast aside your doubt, resist your darkness." Fortuna said as they went at it again, but this time, her attack was too strong and Oliver saw too much of his dark path. His worst memories. His father's suicide, Tommy's death, his mother's murder, Akio's death, torturing Shrieve, Taianna, Kovar, it was too much.

"What happened?" Laurel asked when Oliver failed.

"He's not ready." Fortuna said.

"I'll get it, I'll get it. Now let's go again." Oliver said..

"I could give you an infinite number of tries. It wouldn't change a thing." Fortuna told him.

"What? No. I can do this." Oliver insisted.

"I told you if the darkness within you is greater than the light, you will only make your enemy stronger. You've seen what's inside of you, yeah? Tell me, what could I possibly teach you that would change what you saw?" Fortuna asked and Oliver looked defeated.

"Wait. So that's it? It's over?" Laurel asked.

"There's nothing I can do for him." Fortuna said.

* * *

The following morning, Oliver and Laurel were standing in their hotel room, packing when Laurel looked at him and decided to say something.

"We'll find someone else to teach you magic, someone with more patience." Laurel said.

"She was right, you know? It's not about the magic. It's about me." Oliver told her.

"If she didn't see anything worthy inside you, she never would have dealt with us." Laurel reminded him.

"She didn't deal with us. She dealt with you. She didn't reveal herself until you offered her your chips, and that has always been the way with us. Laurel, you are the one who brings the light. You know, I told you that I've seen magic that's turned good people dark, but all Fortuna did was show me who I really am." Oliver said.

"Don't do this. Every time you face a setback, you throw yourself a pity party." Laurel said.

"It's not a pity party. It's acceptance. You said it yourself. No matter what I do, I'm always gonna revert back to the person I became on the island." Oliver said.

"Yeah, that wasn't me, that's Felicity talking Oliver. Yes I admit that there was a time when I thought the same thing, guess what Oliver, that's not true. You're not perfect. None of us are. The good is that all of us can change." Laurel told him, leaving Oliver to his thoughts as they finished packing and headed out.

* * *

John was currently rushing through streets with JJ in his arms before he was surrounded by Ghosts.

Just when it looked like the end, a black van came out of nowhere and knocked the ghosts to the ground and John smiled in relief when he saw Felicity get out of it.

"Oh, it's been awhile since I've hit anybody with this thing." Felicity said, causing John to smile.

"I didn't think you got my message." John said.

"Sorry we're late. Oliver and Laurel are on Lyla and Darhk." Felicity said.

"Baby John?" Felicity asked.

"All right. Yeah. You got him?" John asked Felicity as he handed her his son.

"Yeah, yeah. I got him." Felicity assured him.

"Good, I have unfinished business." John said as he looked out to where his brother was running before grabbing a helmet and motorcycle before zooming after him.

"It's a small world, isn't it? Your brother-in-law being my loyal servant. Thanksgiving at your home is gonna be so interesting this year." Darhk said as he knocked Lyla down.

"Ha ha ha!" Darhk said as he used to his magic to extract something from Lyla's wrist, right as arrow flew into his shoulder. Darhk looked back to see the Green Arrow and Black Canary standing behind him the Green Arrow holding his bow up with a cable in his hand, which he then yanked, sending Darhk flying backwards right into his fist.

"You seem like a likable guy, Oliver. I bet you've got a lot of friends. I'm gonna enjoy killing every last one of them. Starting with Laurel, again." Darhk said as he sent Green Arrow flying backwards.

"No. Never again." Green Arrow groaned as Darhk approached Black Canary, who, to his surprise, didn't seem scared of him.

"Give it your best shot." Black Canary dared him.

"If you insist." Darhk said as he pressed his hand to Black Canary's chest, expecting to drain life out of her, but to his surprise, nothing happened.

"Don't you know it's rude to touch a woman's chest?" Black Canary said as she took a deep breath and unleashed her Canary Cry, only to find it was much louder and much more powerful then she remembered and she could tell that this wasn't artificial courtesy of her device. This was a natural power.

"Thank you Fortuna." Black Canary said as she watched Darhk get to his feet.

"So, it seems you've got something new. Impressive. But killed you once, I can do it again." Darhk said, only to have the Green Arrow tackle him.

"Not again. Never again." Green Arrow said.

"I guess you're just as good as her." Darhk shrugged as he placed his hand on Green Arrow's chest and started to drain his lifeforce.

However, at the last second, the color returned to Green Arrow's face as his eyes glowed a bright yellow and he pushed Darhk back.

"Not this time you son of a bitch." Green Arrow said angrily.

"This isn't over." Darhk said as he dropped a smoke bomb and escaped.

"Hey, you did it, you repelled Darhk's magic." Black Canary said as she ran up to him.

"Yeah. Felicity's getting JJ back to the bunker, I want you to do the same with Lyla while I go find John." Green Arrow said and Black Canary nodded as they separated.


	6. Chapter 6

When Green Arrow found John, he found him crouching over his brother's dead body.

"How's Lyla?" John asked.

"Um She's fine. She-she's, um- she's unconscious, but-but she's fine. Felicity's taking her and Sara back. Darhk is-Darhk's in the wind. John, what happened?" Green Arrow asked.

"He was never gonna back off of us. My family, they were never gonna be safe." John said brokenly and Green Arrow was able to put the rest together.

"We need to get back to the bunker now." Green Arrow said and John nodded.

* * *

"Hey." Laurel said as she approached Oliver back at the bunker.

"Hi. Did you get in touch with Thea?" Oliver asked.

"Not yet. You ok?" Laurel asked.

"Phew. Earlier with Darhk, it worked. He tried to use his magic on me, and I was able to repel it." Oliver said.

"I know, I saw you do it. The question is how'd you do it?" Laurel asked.

"I heard your voice in my head, and you were reminding me of all of the good things that I have in my life. I heard Thea, I heard John, I heard Quentin, I heard Tommy and my parents. They were telling me to never give up, just telling me to have hope." Oliver said.

"Hey." John said to Lyla as she woke up.

"JJ? Where's JJ?" Lyla asked panicking for her son.

"He's fine, he's fine. Felicity took him to Donna's. He's okay." John assured her.

"But something's wrong." Lyla said.

"I, um-I had to put him down, Lyla. Andy." John said.

"Oh." Lyla said, understanding John's mood.

"I had to kill my baby brother." John said, tears coming to his eyes.

"He wasn't a brother to you, Johnny, not in the ways that really matter. What happened?" Lyla asked.

"He reached for my gun. I didn't have a choice." John lied, not wanting Lyla to know that he'd killed his brother in cold blood.

Lyla smiled at her husband reassuringly until she noticed the scar on her wrist.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no." Lyla said.

"What?" John asked.

"It's gone. Darhk took it." Lyla said

"Took what?" John asked.

"Rubicon." Lyla said as everyone gathered at the main table in the bunker.

"I thought Rubicon was being stored at Argus." Oliver asked.

"It was until Shadowspire tried to steal it. After Waller's death, I had it moved for security reasons." Lyla said.

"To where?" Laurel asked, just to have Lyla show them the scar on her arm.

"It was under your skin?" Felicity asked, looking slightly disgusted.

"A subdermal implant. Darhk ripped it out." Lyla said.

"Lyla, you need to tell us what Rubicon is now." Oliver said, his mind already flashing through worst scenarios.

"A ballistic launch override protocol designed to prevent any country, even our own, from firing a nuclear missile." Lyla said and Oliver's heart sank since he could already put the pieces together of Darhk's endgame and they were worse than he'd imagined.

"Something tells me Darhk's plans aren't so benign." Felicity said.

"With some work and the right expertise, Rubicon could be corrupted. Instead of controlling nukes to prevent them from being launched." Lyla said.

"Oh, my God." John said as he and the others realized what Darhk was planning.

"Darhk would control the world's nuclear stockpile." Laurel realized and Lyla nodded.

"To what end? I don't mean to apply logic to a bad guy's plot here, but Darhk destroys the world, then what? He'd be ruler of nothing." Felicity pointed out.

"Unless he wants to rebuild. Andy told me that Genesis was coming." John said.

"I don't think so. Phil Collins said they'd never tour again." Felicity, just to have Oliver shoot her a look that read that this was not the time for joking.

"The old testament, the book of "Genesis."." Lyla realized and John nodded.

"God wanted to give the world a do-over, so he destroyed it." John said.

"He destroyed it with a flood." Oliver said.

"Rubicon is Darhk's flood." Laurel realized.

"So nuclear annihilation is Darhk's flood. What's he planning on building as his ark?" Felicity asked.

"I don't know, but we need to figure it out now. Felicity, do whatever you have to in order to get in touch with Thea. We need her back here now. In the meantime, I've already called in reinforcements." Oliver said as the elevator dinged.

"Who?" John asked as the elevator doors opened and 2 very familiar faces stepped out.

"Roy, Nyssa." Laurel said eagerly.

"Oliver said something about the end of the world, so here I am." Roy said as he hugged Laurel and then Felicity.

"I came for similar reasons to help you in your moment of need and to finally defeat one of my family's greatest enemies." Nyssa said.

"Good, because we need all the help we can get." Oliver said as Lyla reentered the room.

"I just got off the phone with the DOD and it's not good news." Lyla said.

"How bad are we talking?" Laurel asked.

"Russia, Markovia, Corto Maltese, us, every NATO Ally- Rubicon has control over all their nuclear systems." Lyla said.

"You mean HIVE does." John corrected.

"I know it's a little late for this, but whoever created an algorithm that could override any country's nuclear weapons really screwed up." Felicity said.

"That would be Amanda Waller." Lyla said.

"How much time do we have?" Oliver asked.

"We? Oliver, I'm the director of Argus, and this goes way over my head. This is executive level, and this is Department of Defense." Lyla told him.

"Right, right, right, right, but how much time? There's a start-up sequence before Darhk can actually launch a nuke." Lyla explained.

"We have just under 21 hours." Felicity said as she pulled a timer up on her computer.

"You're gonna have to find a way to interrupt that sequence." Oliver told her.

"Rubicon is a failsafe against nuclear Armageddon. Argus designed it to be 100% unhackable." Lyla protested.

"No. She can do it. She's the best." Oliver said confidently.

"Well, actually, that would be my father as far as Rubicon is concerned. It uses Fourier protocols. Noah practically wrote the book on them. The world is facing nuclear Armageddon. My pride and my general dislike for my father can take a backseat for the next 20-plus hours." Felicity said.

"Felicity, this isn't about pride. Your father's a criminal. He can't be trusted." John said.

"I'm not saying we should trust him. I'm saying we need to." Felicity said.

"Ok. He got out in Darhk's jailbreak. How do we find him?" Laurel asked.

"I'm already running a search." Felicity said.

"Let me know when you find the guy. I have some choice words I'd like to share with him." Roy said, still bitter about what the Calculator made him do.

"Roy, we all vendettas that need to take a backseat until we stop Darhk and as much as I hate to say it, Felicity's father is one of those. I promise, he's all yours once he's done his job." Oliver promised.


	7. Chapter 7

"John, can I talk to you for a second?" Oliver asked and John nodded as Oliver pulled him aside.

"How you doing?" Oliver asked him.

"Been better." John admitted.

"Well, I'm not gonna pretend to understand what you're going through." Oliver told him.

"Well, Oliver, you've been through this with your mother, which is why I can't quite understand why you're putting the fate of the world in the hands of another evil parent." John said.

"I'm not trusting Kuttler. I trust Felicity, and we should just let her do her job, ok? We have one of our own." Oliver reminded him.

"Yeah, stopping Darhk." John agreed.

"His magic is powered by death, so if even one of those nukes hits- he will be unstoppable." Oliver said.

"Ok. What's your play?" John asked as Laurel and Roy joined them.

"Well, if he is planning on harnessing all of this death, he's gonna be in something called a Nexus chamber. Basically, it's a collector of magic." Oliver said.

"And here I thought earthquake machines were as strange as it got." John said

"Esrin Fortuna told me that one of these chambers exists in Star City. I'm betting it falls on a Ley line." Oliver said as he pulled out a map of Star City and it's ley lines.

"What did Vixen call them-Wi-Fi for magic?" Laurel asked.

"Yeah." Oliver said.

"It's a big city, Oliver." Roy pointed out.

"We've got 21 hours. One step at a time. Step one is tracking down Felicity's father to help prevent Rubicon from activating." Oliver said.

"What's step 2?" Roy asked.

"Finding Thea and Darhk's ark, whatever it is." Oliver said, right as Laurel's phone buzzed and she saw it was text from Donna.

"I have to go deal with something regarding my dad, let me know as soon as you have a lead on Cuttler." Laurel said as she headed out.

* * *

"Laurel, what are you doing here?" Quentin asked his daughter as Laurel entered the loft.

"Donna texted me and told me about your suspension." Laurel said.

"That was none of her business." Quentin said.

"I think it was, just like it was mine. Dad, they can't be serious? You're the only reason the Police Department is any more corrupt than it currently is." Laurel said.

"Maybe, but honestly Laurel, I don't care about being a cop anymore." Quentin said.

"What, why?" Laurel asked.

"It's for the same reason you quit working for the DA's office. I can't work for someone who's willing to do so much harm to this city. Besides, considering that I was conspiring with Darhk under the threat of your life, I can't exactly say I blame Pike for this." Quentin said.

"But that's exactly it. Darhk threatened to kill me if you didn't follow his orders. And he did. Doesn't Pike know the cover story?" Laurel asked.

"There is no cover story because Ruve Darhk is keeping the part about you being at Iron Heights under wraps." Quentin said and now it all made sense.

"Dad, all you've ever wanted to be in your life is a cop. Don't throw it all away." Laurel insisted.

"It's not my call to make Laurel. And honestly, I think that we both know that you're the one who truly makes sure justice is done. And also look at my record. I've shown repeatedly that I can't stop my emotions from clouding my judgement, I mean, look at what I did to Roy last year." Quentin said.

"Dad, Roy's alive. He's in the bunker right now." Laurel said.

"What?" Quentin asked.

"Roy faked his death to get all suspicion on Oliver being the Arrow dropped. Oliver called him and Nyssa in to help us deal with Darhk." Laurel said.

"I need to talk to him." Quentin said as he headed out and Laurel could tell that despite her father's words, he missed being a cop.

* * *

Oliver, John, Roy and Nyssa were looking over a map of Star City when the elevator doors opened and Quentin entered.

"What is the guy who arrested me to be killed doing here?" Roy asked.

"Looking for you Harper. I feel like I might owe you an apology." Quentin said.

"You don't might owe an apology, you do owe me an apology." Roy said, since he did not intend to make this easy for Quentin.

"I'm sorry I locked you up in prison for a crime I know neither you or Oliver really committed. Just like 3 years ago, I let my emotions get the better of me and when I heard that Oliver was the Arrow, it seemed like the healthiest way to grieve for Sara again. But I was out of line. I should've known that someone was setting the Arrow up and I should've put you under protective custody after you were arrested." Quentin said as he held out his hand to Roy, who shook it.

"It's all in the past and right now, we need to focus on the future." Roy said.

"Particularly figuring out how to stop armageddon." Oliver said.

"Wait, did you just say Armageddon?" Quentin asked.

"Yeah, Darhk's endgame is to use an Argus algorithm called Rubicon to Launch every nuke on the planet." Oliver said and Quentin looked horrified.

"Then, shouldn't you have all hands on deck? Where's your sister?" Quentin asked.

"No idea. I've tried everything I can think of, but still no sign of Thea anywhere." Felicity said as the computer beeped.

"Did you find Thea?" Oliver asked.

"No, I found Noah." Felicity said.

"Let's suit up." Oliver said as Laurel joined them.

"Sounds like I arrived just in time." Laurel said.

"Yep, we found the Calculator." Oliver said as he, Laurel, John and Roy headed over to the displays to get their suits.


	8. Chapter 8

Green Arrow, Black Canary, Spartan, Arsenal and Nyssa, who had yet to have codename assigned, though Oliver was leaning towards Black Arrow, were currently at Noah's location, but found it surprisingly empty.

"There's no one here." Green Arrow said over the comms.

"I found a deep-trunk fiber optic hookup with polymorphic encryption. Noah is there, trust me." Overwatch said.

"I think she's right. Look." Spartan said, pointing to the surveillance cameras.

"Whoever rigged that up didn't want to be surprised." Black Canary said.

"I'm tracing the Bluetooth signal. Head southwest." Overwatch said and they did, only to find an empty computer seat in front of an array of monitors.

"Well, he's not here." Arsenal said.

"He has to be." Overwatch protested.

"He was. Looks like he bolted and in a hurry." Black Canary said.

"Bolted from whom?" Nyssa asked, though they all had an idea as Green Arrow accessed the surveillance cameras.

"This was 20 minutes ago." Green Arrow said as they saw some familiar faces enter the room with Ghosts about a few minutes after Kuttler departed.

"Looks like Kuttler wasn't the only one that left Iron Heights." Spartan said as they saw Daniel Brickwell enter the room.

"Those are Ghosts with him." Black Canary said.

"What does HIVE want with my father?" Overwatch asked as she managed to tap into the feed and they all watched what happened next.

 _"Ok. Find that scrawny son of a bitch, and when you do, kill him."_ Brick said in the video as he and Ghosts fanned out.

* * *

"You're right. Kuttler's the only one that can stop Rubicon. That's why Darhk wanted him dead." Oliver said as they entered the Bunker.

"You all right?" Laurel asked Felicity.

"Yeah. The word conflicted comes to mind." Felicity said.

"Well, at least we know he got away." Roy said.

"But not much of a head start." John pointed out.

"I hacked Kuttler's server to see if there was anything in there that could point us to where he would run to, and he cleared the cache, so I can't recover any files, but there is a root directory called Ravenspur." Felicity said.

"What's Ravenspur?" Nyssa asked.

"Don't know. Does sound familiar. I just don't know why." Felicity said.

"We're running out of time." Oliver pointed out.

"The whole world is, so yeah. Meantime, my Ley line algorithm kicked back a possible twenty on a magical clubhouse for Darhk." Felicity said.

"We don't have time to search 20 places." Roy said.

"Hey, I'm doing the best I can. I just wish I could find Thea." Felicity said.

"Keep searching, we need her back now." Oliver said and Felicity nodded.

* * *

Thanks to Felicity's mother, they now knew that Ravenspur was the name of a cabin that she and Noah used to go to in Cypress Cove.

The team had split up into 3 groups, Green Arrow and Spartan, Black Canary and Arsenal and Nyssa was on her own.

Since they were having no luck finding Noah yet, Green Arrow decided that now was as good a time as any to have much needed discussion with Spartan.

"Can I talk to you about something?" Green Arrow asked him.

"Yeah." Spartan said.

"I spoke to Lyla. She's worried about you because you said that you shot Andy in self-defense." Green Arrow said.

"Oliver, I don't want to talk about this." John protested.

"You just never said anything about self-defense to me, John." Green Arrow pointed out.

"I couldn't tell Lyla the truth and have her look at me the same way anymore." Spartan said.

"Come on. You don't know that." Green Arrow said.

"Oliver, you're the last person on earth to lecture someone about lying to the people they love." Spartan reminded him.

"I'm not lecturing. I'm worried. You're better than me at this, and you're hurting worse than I have ever seen you. Don't compound that by lying to your wife. The fact that I've lied to both Laurel and Felicity does not give me less credibility. If anything, it should tell you that I know what I'm talking about." Green Arrow reminded him as they heard a very familiar voice around the corner.

"You're a hard man to find, Kuttler. Come out now. We'll make it painless. Make us work for it, we'll make it last." Brick said and they heard a gunshot being fired and saw Noah running away with a rifle his arms.

"I hate it when they run." Brick said.

"We've got eyes on Kuttler. He's heading southwest towards the woods, but Brick and Murmur are here and they've brought Ghosts. Spartan and I will deal with them, which leaves Kuttler to the rest of you, and Black Canary, Nyssa, please make sure that Arsenal remembers that we need Kuttler alive right now." Green Arrow said.

"Copy that." Arsenal said.

"Copy that." Black Canary said.

"Let's do this partner." Green Arrow said to Spartan as they engaged Murmur and a few Ghosts while Brick and the others followed Kuttler.

* * *

"You make me chase you anymore, I'm gonna put a bullet in you." Brick said as he held Kuttler dead to rights.

"Isn't that the plan?" Kuttler asked.

"I'm willing to give you a sporting chance." Brick said, holding out his gun to Kuttler.

"I heard about this game while I was in prison, Mr. Brick. You let me walk if I take you down." Kuttler said.

"Darhk said you was a smart bloke. So what do you say? It's the end of the world as I understand it." Brick said, right as a red arrow embedded itself in his arm.

"Ug." Brick groaned as he looked up to see Arsenal standing over him.

"Remember me you son of a bitch?" Arsenal growled as Black Canary and Nyssa joined him and engaged the Ghosts, allowing Kuttler to sneak away.

"You guys got this?" Arsenal asked and Black Canary and Nyssa nodded, causing Arsenal to run after Kuttler.

"You're not getting away from me this time you son of a bitch." Arsenal said as fired an arrow, which exploded and wrapped Kuttler in cables.

"I got him." Arsenal said over the comms.

"Everyone, fall back!" Green Arrow shouted over the comms as he fired a explosive arrow to cover his and Spartan's exit.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Just because a lot of the stuff towards the end of the episode Monument Point is kind of Olicity heavy and also, I can't really think much of how to alter those events, since that was one of the few things that was actually pretty well thought out, despite not having Laurel there during the end of season 4, I'm just going to skip ahead to the Nexus chamber scene at City Hall.**

* * *

Green Arrow, Spartan and Black Canary were all standing in front of Darhk, watching in horror as he took in the deaths of all the people who died in Havenrock.

"Hello, Oliver. Nice timing. I think you're going to need much bigger arrows." Darhk said, though his voice seemed to be a bit distorted from absorbing so much death.

Green Arrow responded by firing 3 arrows at him, only to have them turn to dust before they could even make contact with Darhk.

"Cool. You know, I didn't even mean to do that." Darhk said, his voice back to normal as Spartan fired at him, only to have his bullets meet the same effect as the arrows.

"I turn steel arrows into dust, and you thought lead would do the trick?" Darhk asked him.

"What about this?" Black Canary asked as she unleashed her Canary Cry on Darhk, who simply looked a bit discomforted.

"He's not human anymore." Black Canary said.

"Oh, I'm still human. Just better." Darhk said as he sent them all flying back with his magic.

"Doesn't give you the right to remake the world." Green Arrow said as he got to his feet, wondering why he wasn't able to resist Darhk's magic like before.

"Why not? It's been done before. Noah and the flood. People even worship the responsible party." Darhk pointed out before he raised his hands again.

"This might smart a little. I'm pulling the oxygen out of your bodies, molecule by molecule, but here's the good news. I'm not going to kill you. Well, not right now, at least. Instead, I'm going to regain control of Rubicon. That way, when the whole world goes all "Dr. Strangelove," you can feel your skin melt from Armageddon." Darhk said as he attacked them again, but this time, Black Canary was able to resist as the chamber began to come collapse as Darhk left it.

"Oliver, let's go! Come on! We got to go now!" Black Canary said when suddenly a huge rock collapsed in front of the exit.

"We're trapped." Spartan said.

Black Canary, acting on pure instinct, reached out her hands and blasted pure sonic energy out of them, reducing the rock to pebbles.

"How did you do that?" Spartan asked.

"I have no idea." Black Canary said.

"Figure it out later, we need to move now before his whole place collapses on us." Green Arrow said as they rushed out.

* * *

"A long-range ballistic KN-08 missile was responsible for the nuclear blast at Havenrock. The Pentagon has not further commented. FEMA and city emergency services personnel continue their quarantine." the news reporter said on the TV monitor that Quentin was watching as Oliver, John and Laurel reentered the bunker.

"What's going on? What the hell happened in Havenrock?" Quentin asked as he hugged his daughter.

"Darhk happened." Oliver said simply.

"This city is starting to panic. Are they right to?" Quentin asked.

"Felicity's got it under control, but my wife and her top secret government agency's looking for a more permanent solution." John said.

"I cannot get in touch with Thea!" Oliver said angrily as he checked his phone again.

"It's ok. She got ahold of me." Felicity said as she and Roy entered the bunker.

"Thanks for not being dead." Felicity then said to Oliver.

"Um, aren't we all going to be if you're away from your computer?" Quentin asked.

"Curtis and Kuttler are dealing with Rubicon and Nyssa is there with them as our insurance policy." Felicity said.

"What did Thea say? Do you know where she is?" Oliver asked.

"It's not good news. HIVE has her." Felicity said and Oliver cursed under his breath.

"Do you have a location?" Laurel asked.

"I'm tracing a signal. I should have taken more processors from Palmer Tech on my way out." Felicity said.

"They made a mistake letting you go. They'll see it." John said.

"And if they don't, I'm taking revenge plan suggestions." Felicity said, much to both Oliver and Laurel's annoyance.

"Got it. Thea's message came from the intersection of Berkeley and Childress, right in the heart of the Glades." Felicity said.

"I thought you said Thea and her boyfriend went out of town." Quentin asked Oliver.

"I thought they did. Let's go." Oliver said to John, Laurel and Roy, who nodded.

"I-I'm coming with you." Quentin said.

"I want you to stay here. If this gets worse, the city is going to need someone to listen to that they can trust." Oliver said and Quentin nodded.

* * *

The team was now at the location, but were surprised by the lack of Hive and lack of Thea in the area.

"Overwatch, are you sure this is the spot? There's nothing here." Green Arrow said over the comms.

"That's impossible. Ok, not impossible, but my backtrace on Thea's message has a 99.9999% accuracy rate, so unless this is part of the .0001 percentile." Overwatch said.

"It's just an empty street." Spartan said.

"Just look for anything out of place, all right? Whatever HIVE has built is probably recent, you know, new." Quentin pointed out.

"Well Roy, you're our resident Glades expert, anything here look out of the ordinary to you?" Green Arrow asked Arsenal, who after looking around, noticed a sewer entrance not that had not been there a year ago.

"Is there supposed to be sewer access on the street?" Arsenal asked.

"Not according to city plans." Overwatch said and Green Arrow understood.

"Stand by." Green Arrow said as he fired an arrow at the grate, which dropped revealing a tunnel, which the 4 of them all dropped into.

* * *

"How did HIVE build all this without anyone knowing?" Arsenal asked as they walked through the tunnel.

"Well, doesn't hurt having someone controlling the city's infrastructure." Green Arrow said.

"Can't find any public blueprints on file for an underground lair with a creepy sewer entrance." Overwatch said as the 4 of them entered a door and could not believe what they were seeing.

"Believe me There are no public blueprints for this." Black Canary said as they realized that comm signal was lost.

"Unbelievable. Just like Mount Weather," Spartan said and then at the looks he got from the others, he elaborated, " Continuity of government facility built by FEMA during the cold war, in case of a nuclear attack."

"I think that we found the ark that HIVE's been building." Green Arrow said.

"It's crazy. Take away the psychos in the smocks And it might as well be Ivy Town." Green Arrow said as they walked through the city.

"Everyone looks so happy." Arsenal said.

"Happy's easy when you're mindless on some little yellow pill. Let's just assume we weren't invited over for casserole." Spartan said.

"What's our play?" Black Canary asked.

"We split up and find Thea. John, scope the houses on the north, Laurel, take the east side, Roy head west and I'll head south." Green Arrow said and they all nodded as they split up.


	10. Chapter 10

"I've got eyes on Thea. Fourth house down. There are two hostiles with her." Green Arrow said into the comms as he entered the house.

"Speedy, let's get you out of here." Green Arrow said before he noticed the look on his sister's face.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"I have the intruder. Move, and I will kill you." Thea said in blank tone that made Green Arrow's blood turn cold.

"Thea Don't move. Listen to me. You're not thinking clearly." Green Arrow said as Malcolm entered with some Ghosts.

"In her defense, she's a little drugged at the moment." Malcolm said.

"I should have taken your head." Green Arrow growled at him, once again regretting that decision.

"That's always been your problem An inability to do what is necessary." Malcolm said.

"Laurel nearly died because of you." Green Arrow said.

"What are you going to do? We've already established you're not going to kill me." Malcolm said.

"How sure of that are you?" Green Arrow asked as he notched an arrow and fired it at Malcolm, only to have Thea block it.

"So once again you're using my sister to fight your battles. What, you don't have the sack to fight me yourself?" Green Arrow taunted as Spartan, Black Canary and Arsenal joined them.

"What the hell?" Arsenal asked.

"Merlyn drugged Thea again, this time with those yellow Ghost pills." Green Arrow said.

"Son of a bitch." Spartan said.

"Thea, let me deal with our green friend. You deal with the others." Malcolm said and Thea just nodded before engaging the others.

"I'm going to enjoy this." Malcolm said as he pulled out his sword.

"Not as much as I will." Green Arrow said as they engaged in battle, bow on blade, giving Green Arrow slight flashbacks to his fight against Ra's al Ghul last year.

* * *

"All clear." Spartan said as he, Arsenal and Black Canary took shelter in another house.

"Looks like we bought ourselves a few minutes." Black Canary said.

"John, this place is enormous. I don't know how we're going to find Thea." Arsenal said.

Just have to make sure that the Ghosts don't find us." Spartan said as they saw civilians enter the house and saw the look of panic on their faces.

"So much for "clear." We're not going to hurt you." Black Canary said.

"Then what are the weapons for?" the man asked.

"There's a woman being held against her will. We're just here to bring her home." Arsenal tried to reassure them, right as Ruve Darhk's face appeared on the monitor.

"Citizens of Tevat Noah, I have disturbing news. We are under attack from a man in a green hood, a man in a red hood, a man in a black helmet and a woman with a black mask. Do not let them disrupt Genesis. These individuals are not an affront to our home but to our future and the futures of our children. Find them and kill them." Ruve said as the message ended.

"Oh, no." Arsenal said.

"Things just got complicated." Spartan said as they looked back at the people.

* * *

Malcolm and Green Arrow were slugging it out in the streets, with Malcolm telling every ghost they passed to leave Green Arrow to him. He wanted revenge on Oliver for all he'd taken from him.

"The last time we fought, I was overconfident and it led to my downfall as Ra's. It will not happen again and this time, I will be victorious." Malcolm said.

"Considering how the last time we fought, I took your hand, I wouldn't count on it. Especially since this time, I'll take your head." Green Arrow responded.

"You can try Oliver, but you can't beat me. I've beaten you twice so far." Malcolm said.

"Same number of times I've beaten you. I'd say we're evenly matched. And you know, the only reason I let you live before is because on some level, I hoped that you could change and be the father Thea deserves. But I was wrong. You will never change and you were an even worse father to Thea than you were to Tommy and you killed him." Green Arrow shouted as he punched Malcolm in the face.

"How dare you. Tommy deserved his fate. He was weak, unable to do what was necessary. But Thea, she was strong. She was worthy to be my child, unlike her brother. Everything I have done has been to forge her to be strong enough to endure, unlike Tommy." Malcolm said and hearing this only caused Green Arrow's rage to increase as he pulled out an arrow.

"By drugging her and forcing her to kill a friend? Everything you've done since you came into her life has simply been to further your own agenda. You don't care about her. All you've done is cause her pain. And now I'm finally going to end you." Green Arrow said as they continued on their brawl.

* * *

"Streets are filled. Ruve's mobilized the entire ark looking for us." Spartan said from inside the house

"They're in here!" the man shouted, trying to get the Ghosts' attention, only to be silenced by Black Canary.

"Quiet." She snarled at him.

"You can't win. You can't stop Genesis." the man said.

"Well, what are you going to do when you're not here to enjoy your brave new world?" Spartan said, aiming his gun at the man, only to have Arsenal stand in his way.

"Spartan. Easy." Black Canary said.

"He almost got us killed." Spartan said.

"They're like Thea. They're not in their right minds. And take it from me, they can't help what they're doing." Arsenal said.

"You mean the pills? We haven't taken any. Not even one. None of us have. We're here because we believe, because we know the world is evil and darkness. It's beyond saving." The man said, causing all 3 of them to turn to him in shock.

"How can you believe that crap?" Black Canary asked.

"Because we've lived it. Every day. So many promises were made to save the city, but it all just fell apart, and we were the ones left in the rubble. Damien Darhk has given us hope. Can you with your masks and your guns actually say the same?" the man said, causing all 3 of them to look at each other.


	11. Chapter 11

Green Arrow and Malcolm were getting to the heart of their battle when Green Arrow finally found an advantage and flipped Malcolm over his shoulder.

"That was for Thea." Green Arrow said as he yanked Malcolm's sword out of his hand and slammed his bow into Malcolm's gut.

"That was for William." Green Arrow said as he thrust the sword deeply into Malcolm's leg.

"That was for Sara." Green Arrow said as he then used the sword to cut of Malcolm's other hand.

"That was for Tommy." Green Arrow told him as he finally dropped the sword, pulled an arrow out of his quiver and grabbed Malcolm by his collar and lifted him up.

"And this is for my father." Green Arrow said as he jammed the arrow right into Malcolm's heart, just like he did 3 years ago.

"And this time, stay dead." Green Arrow grunted as he dropped Malcolm's body to the ground in disgust and left him to rot while he went to rejoin the others.

* * *

"There you are." Spartan said as Green Arrow joined them.

"Where's Malcolm?" Arsenal asked.

"Dead. I finally ended that son of a bitch." Green Arrow said.

"Good." Black Canary said, though Green Arrow could tell there was still something on their minds.

"What's wrong?" Green Arrow asked and Black Canary told him what the man had said.

"They're not necessarily wrong. Do you ever think that maybe Darhk has a point?" Green Arrow asked them.

"No, Darhk is psychotic. Everyone down here is." Spartan said.

"Are they? He's not wrong. The world is coming apart just like Star City. I mean, it is worse than it has ever been." Green Arrow pointed out.

"That's because Darhk's been spending the past year trying to kill it." Black Canary reminded him.

"Then why is he giving these people more hope than we ever could?" Green Arrow asked, right as there was a knock on the door and Ghosts began moving in.

"Go! Go in the bedroom! Take cover!" Green Arrow said to the family, who nodded and ran to the bedroom.

"Go! Move, move, move!" Spartan told them as they returned fire.

"We'll hold them off. Go find Thea." Black Canary said to Green Arrow and Arsenal who nodded.

"Go, now!" Spartan shouted as the 2 archers ran out, only to come face to face with Thea.

"Thea. This isn't you, Thea. They are trying to control you, but you are stronger than that. You can fight through it." Green Arrow told her.

"I can't." Thea said and Arsenal knew what he had to do as he quickly looked around before pulling down his hood and mask so Thea could see his face.

"Yes, you can. Every day you stand side by side with your brother and your friends to protect this city, and no matter how dark or how hopeless, you always keep fighting. You never give up! I refuse to believe that you're going to give up now. The woman I fell in love with never gives up. So fight! Please." Roy said and he could tell that Thea seeing his face was helping and finally, he knew what he had to do and despite the risk, Roy walked right up to Thea and kissed her.

"Thea, are you back?" Roy asked when they broke apart.

"I guess it's true what they say about true love's kiss." Thea said with a smile as she then turned to her brother.

"You came for me." Thea said.

"Did you have any doubt that I would?" Green Arrow asked as Roy put his hood and mask back on.

"We need to regroup with the others now." Arsenal said and the two siblings nodded as they headed back in, only to find that the Ghosts were well taken care of.

"Thea." Black Canary said happily, but before they could celebrate, static appeared on the TV before a very familiar face popped up on it.

"Hi, everyone. Uncle Lonnie here. See, I just absolutely adore your little community. It's so welcoming to outsiders, but it's so structured. Going to have to fix that. Mr. Darhk, remember me? The loyal servant you rejected, betrayed? In 20 minutes, I'm going to kill someone. It can be your wife Oh, but, Damien, you're my first choice. Ball's in your court, buddy. Oh, and be quick about it, because in 21 minutes, I'm going to blow your little underground world into next week." Machin said as he showed footage of holding both Darhk's wife and daughter hostage.

"Ok? So Machin is down here?" Spartan asked.

"He killed Alex, who brought me here because Ruve drugged him just like Malcolm did to me. Speaking of him, where is Malcolm?" Thea said.

"I killed him." Green Arrow said simply.

"Finally." was all Thea could say.

"But what do we do about Machin? He's still a threat." Black Canary said.

"To Darhk and his wife, and I still don't understand why we should care." Spartan asked.

"Because he has already tried once to kill everyone down here." Thea said.

"Thea's right. We're not letting anyone else die." Green Arrow said before turning to the family.

"This place isn't safe. I need you to get your family out of here in order to protect them. Please." Green Arrow said to the father, who nodded.

"Still, how exactly do we get out of here, since I doubt the way we came will be usable for civilians?" Spartan asked.

"I snagged this off of Malcolm during the fight. It's a map of the Ark. Black Canary, Arsenal, I want you 2 to lead the evacuation in the event that the rest of us can't stop Machin." Green Arrow said and the two nodded as Black Canary took the map from him and then said "Please come back to me, preferably alive."

"Don't worry, I will." Green Arrow promised her as she and Arsenal led the family out.

"Let's move." Green Arrow said to Spartan and Thea nodded as they headed out to.


	12. Chapter 12

After destroying the Ark and saving Darhk's daughter, though Ruve Darhk wasn't so lucky, Green Arrow, Thea and Spartan were standing outside the crater made the by explosion.

"What about everybody else?" Thea asked.

"I saw Roy and Laurel leading some evacuations. There must be other access points." Green Arrow said.

"And Malcolm's underneath all that." Thea said.

"What about her?" Spartan asked, referring to Darhk's daughter, was currently in Speedy's arms.

"Is anyone there? Green Arrow, Spartan, Speedy, Black Canary, Arsenal? Hell, I'd take Malcolm Merlyn at this point." Overwatch's voice said over the comms.

"Green Arrow, Spartan and Speedy are safe. Not sure about Black Canary and Arsenal." Green Arrow said.

"We're fine, we managed to get all the civilians out before the blast." Black Canary's voice said over the comms, much to everyone's relief.

"Where are you with Rubicon?" Green Arrow asked.

"HIVE's locked out. We're good." Overwatch told him and they all looked relieved.

"The city's safe." Green Arrow said.

"You sound like there's a "but" to that sentence." Overwatch said.

"People still need saving. They still need hope." Green Arrow said simply.

* * *

Later on, Damien Darhk was standing in Felicity's loft, preparing to drain the life out of Donna when suddenly the Green Arrow swung in through the window.

"I know you don't live here anymore, but those were nice windows." Darhk said as Green Arrow fired an arrow at him as Spartan, Arsenal and Black Canary entered the room.

"So unoriginal." Darhk said when the arrow froze in midair and exploded.

"I am now powered by the deaths of tens of thousands of souls. There is nothing you can do to stop me Or should I say, "us."" Darhk said as Ghosts barged in. The team engaged the Ghosts trying to protect Donna and Felicity from them and Darhk, until Darhk was about to use his magic to drain the life from Green Arrow when suddenly Speedy burst in, holding Darhk's daughter at arrowpoint.

"Stop! You let them go, or I kill your daughter." Speedy threatened.

"Do you think I'm bluffing?" She asked and Darhk immediately did as she said, since he'd already lost his wife, he would not lose his daughter to, at least, not until the rest of the world died with Genesis.

"Let my daughter go." Darhk said as he did what Speedy said and she then held up her end on of the bargain and released Darhk's daughter.

"It's ok, sweetheart. Everything's going to be all right." Darhk said to his daughter before he dropped a smoke bomb, covering his all the Ghosts' escape.

"Are you ok?" Felicity asked her mother.

"When did this become your life?" Donna asked before Felicity noticed her's and Curtis's work station.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God, it's gone. He took it. It's gone." Felicity said, panicking.

"What's gone?" Black Canary asked.

"The laptop with the anti-Rubicon program." Felicity said and they all felt their hearts dropped.

"If Darhk has that." Speedy began.

"He can launch all of the world's nuclear missiles." Green Arrow finished, knowing that this wasn't over by a long shot.

* * *

The team had just carried an unconscious Curtis into the bunker and set him down on the med table as Oliver and John began administering medical aid.

"Looks like internal bleeding. Possibly broken ribs. Hemothorax. We have to relieve the pressure. Thea." John said and Thea simply did what she was told.

"Felicity, we need you at your station. We have to stop Rubicon." Oliver said and Felicity nodded before heading over to the computers.

* * *

"How is he?" Laurel asked when Oliver joined her in front of the suits.

"Well, he's stable. John said the next 30 minutes should tell us Whether or not he'll make it? Yeah." Oliver said.

"Hey, can I ask you something? I know it might not be the best time. Back at the loft." Laurel said.

"Yeah?" Oliver asked.

"Darhk's magic, it worked on you. I thought." Laurel began.

"You thought I found a way to stop it." Oliver finished and Laurel nodded.

"That was before he grew so powerful. It was the- the hope you had in me was able to counteract his magic." Oliver explained.

"And now my hope's not enough." Laurel said and considering her hope was shrinking by the minute, that meant that Oliver was running on nothing as he nodded.

"So where are we?" Oliver asked Felicity.

"Um, good news, bad news time. Good news is is that Darhk hasn't launched the nukes yet. I think his hacker's still trying to break our failsafes." Felicity said.

"Ok, and the bad news?" Oliver asked.

"Well, the bad news is that with Rubicon offline, there is nothing for me to hack into." Felicity said.

"Right, but your laptop has to have a GPS- - yeah. - I'm sure that you've already started to try and do it." Oliver said.

"Yeah." Felicity said as Lyla joined them in the bunker.

"I thought you'd shut Rubicon down." Lyla asked.

"Felicity is working on locating the laptop." Oliver said.

"Where's JJ?" John asked.

"He's fine. He's in an Argus bunker in Coast City." Lyla assured him.

"With Darhk's anti-nuke bunker destroyed, why is he moving forward with Genesis?" Lyla then asked.

"Machin killed his wife." Oliver said, as if that explained everything.

"Well, his daughter still lives in this world. He must know that." Felicity said.

"He knows, he just- he doesn't care. He's lost all hope." Oliver said.

"Yeah, just like all of us." John said.

"Wait. I thought he was the cynic." Thea said.

"It's not like John doesn't have a point, Thea." Oliver said.

"We are not finished yet." Laurel reminded him.

"The key word being "yet." I got a 20 on the laptop. Downtown, abandoned office building." Felicity said as Nyssa joined them.

"Oh look, it's the woman who held my life hostage twice to lure out my lunatic father." Thea said smartly to Nyssa, who wisely chose to keep her mouth shut.

"You can hash it out with Nyssa later, right now, we have work to do." Oliver said.

"Let's move." Oliver said as the team nodded and moved out.

* * *

"Overwatch, there's no one here." Black Canary said as they searched the building.

"That's impossible. You're right on top of the GPS signal." Overwatch said on the comms.

"She's right." Spartan said as he pulled a blinking light.

"Oh, my God." Speedy said as she pointed out a monitor with a map of the world on it.

"Overwatch." Green Arrow said.

"I see it." Overwatch said as they watched in horror as they watched every nuke on the planet launch.

* * *

"Just over 15,000 ballistic missiles, and they all just launched." Felicity said as the team entered the bunker.

"How much time do we have?" Roy asked.

"Two hours. Maybe less." Felicity said as Lyla entered the room while on the phone.

"Confirmed. 15,434 birds in the air. We need to set defense condition one and get the president down to the PEOC." Lyla said as she hung up.

"Felicity." Oliver began.

"He's got me completely locked out." Felicity said.

"Ok, how many missiles are there?" Thea asked.

"DOD's working on it, but the targets are worldwide." Lyla said.

"You said that we have two hours." Nyssa said to Felicity.

"The world has two hours, but I'm tracking a Minuteman ICBM heading straight for Star City. It just launched out of Warren Air Force Base in Colorado." Felicity said.

"Ok, well, that's close." Thea said.

"Which means we only have 45 minutes." Felicity said darkly.


	13. Chapter 13

Quentin had just arrived at the bunker, only to have Felicity quickly put a map in his hands.

"All right, where's the fire? What's this?" Quentin asked.

"The safest place within 100 miles to survive a nuclear attack. Based on wind patterns-." Felicity began, only to be interrupted by Quentin.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. What are you talking about?" he asked.

"The world is going to end in two hours. I need you to take my mother there. Can you do that?" Felicity asked.

"Yeah, I will." Quentin assured her.

"Bye, daddy. Bye, mama." John heard JJ say over the phone.

"We'll see you soon, sweetie. I love you, baby boy." John said as he hung up.

"Argus has a chopper waiting to take us to Coast City, so at least we'll all be together." Lyla said.

"If we can't stop the end of the world." John said.

"In these situations, you're usually the one offering hope." Lyla pointed out.

"I'm fresh out, Lyla." John said.

"Because of what happened with Andy? It was self-defense, John. It was a clean kill." Lyla said as Oliver walked up to her.

"Lyla. Are you having Argus move on city hall?" Oliver asked and Lyla nodded.

"John told me the source of Darhk's power is there, that he might be looking to harness the deaths from the nuclear attacks." Lyla explained.

"No, he's already done that with the first attack. He will decimate your team. You should pull them back." Oliver told her.

"And what if his hacker's down there with him?" Lyla asked.

"Cooper Seldon is not going to be anywhere that we think to look. He'll be in a secure location." Felicity said.

"If your team goes down there, they will all die." Oliver told her.

"It's not your call, Oliver. It's mine." Lyla said.

* * *

"Assault team sledgehammer has engaged target. Switching you to their feed now." A man on the radio said and all the team heard was static, gunfire and the sounds of men screaming.

"Turn it off." Oliver said.

"Those missiles hit, and he's going to become even stronger, isn't he?" Lyla asked.

"He already is with the souls of all of those Argus agents that he just killed." Oliver told her in an I-told-you-so kind of way.

"Wait. I'm in. I'm through Cooper's firewalls." Felicity said.

"Well, shut it down." Oliver said.

"That's what I'm trying to do." Felicity said when suddenly Ghosts burst in at all angles, causing the team to jump into action with Oliver, Thea and Roy all pulling their hoods and Oliver heading for his bow while everyone else engaged the Ghosts with Nyssa using her sword and Felicity taking cover.

* * *

After fending off the Ghost attack, Oliver and Laurel were picking up display dummies and trying to clean up the bunker while also trying to avoid thinking about the certain doom they were facing.

"How much time do we have?" Laurel asked.

"I think 27 minutes. It's kind of hard to tell now. But we can't just lose all hope here." Oliver said.

"You have. I can see it in your eyes." Laurel pointed out.

"I just can't believe that I thought that I'd be the one to unite this city while Damien Darhk was trying to kill it. That was arrogant. It was the same arrogance that made me feel like I could be the Green Arrow without descending into darkness. Bottom line, it was foolish." Oliver said.

"You don't believe that." Laurel said.

"I didn't believe that until you died." Oliver told her.

"I thought you weren't blaming yourself for my death anymore. Especially since I told you that it wasn't your fault, plus, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not dead anymore." Laurel said.

"I made a decision to come back here. I tried to do things differently, and for a time, I did. And now I am left here to wonder if I hadn't, would things here be different?" Oliver asked.

"You're not just talking about coming back here last year were you?" Laurel asked.

"No, I wasn't. So many people might still be alive if I'd just never come home from Lian Yu 4 years ago." Oliver said and then he walked over to where Curtis was standing before Laurel could respond.

"Curtis. You shouldn't be up." Oliver said to Curtis.

"Tell me about it. Someone's got to provide a little optimism. Doesn't seem like anyone around here is in the head-space to do it." Curtis said.

"Then you know we've lost the city." Oliver pointed out to him.

"No. I know that you're running out of time to get it back." Curtis said, causing Oliver to look at him.

"Look. Living in Star City requires a special kind of tenacity. A sane person wouldn't live here. It's a fact that Paul likes to remind me of weekly. We were this close to leaving Star City last October. After 3 terrorist attacks, we were done, but then the night before we were going to start packing, the Green Arrow popped up on our TV, and he reminded me that this city is worth saving, that my home- that my home was worth fighting for. That guy gave me inspiration. He gave me hope. And if he could give me hope then, why can't he give it to others now?" Curtis asked and Oliver slowly began to realize that Curtis was right. He was running out of time to take back his home.

* * *

Oliver climbed on top of an abandoned car and saw the people of Star City, his city, were running through the streets, tearing each other and the city apart.

"Hey, stop! Stop! Please." Oliver shouted trying to get their attention and eventually he did.

"I know what you're feeling right now. I'm feeling it, too, the sense of- of helplessness, of hopelessness. I don't know how we even begin to process what might happen to us right now, but there are a few things that I do know. I know that this city has been through tough times before, and we have pulled through. We survived the Undertaking. We survived the Siege. We survived the Outbreak, and somehow, someway, we will survive this. A friend of mine told me that living in Star City, it takes a special kind of tenacity, but we do live here, because this is our home. This is our home! It is our friend, our family, our lives, and we will not- we will not throw those precious gifts away by descending into chaos. We will look to each other for hope. We will cling to each other for strength, and if we do that, no matter what happens, then we can all stand here united." Oliver said and he could feel his hopelessness melt away as new hope replaced it, only to have it dampened as he saw the nuke incoming.

* * *

The team was currently watching Oliver's speech on the TV in the bunker and they also felt new hope, right as they saw the missile.

"Oh, my God. It's here." Laurel said.

"That's terrifying And also kind of great." Curtis said.

"I think you got hit on the head harder than you realize." Roy said.

"No, no, he's right. I can't hack this system. But if the nuke gets close enough, which it is We could use the line-of-sight attack on the missile itself and disarm it." Felicity said.

"I'm not going to pretend to understand what you just said, but if it means that you can stop the missile, than go." Laurel said and Felicity and Curtis nodded before they left.


	14. Chapter 14

"Whatever you guys just did was incredible." Oliver said as he entered the bunker and he could feel a change in the room's atmosphere.

"We only took down one nuke. We still have 15,433 to go, give or take." Felicity said.

"The code to the line-of-sight hack, can you distro it to everybody?" Felicity asked Lyla, handing her a USB drive.

"I'm on it." Lyla said, taking the drive and heading out.

"All right, that's one." Oliver said

"1 nuke in 15,000. The chances of us getting them all is- 1 in 375 million." Felicity said.

"Well, we need to find Darhk's hacker and shut down Rubicon at the source." Oliver said

"When we disarmed the nuke, we gained access to its onboard computer and cloned its hard drive remotely. Then we ran a backtrace to determine the source of the initial launch signal. He's holed up in a warehouse on the corner of Cheswold and Crombie. Let's get after him." Felicity said.

"That was a nice speech Ollie. In fact, I think that it would've gotten you elected as mayor had you not dropped out of the race." Thea said.

"Thanks Speedy, but right now, I need you, Roy and Nyssa to back up Curtis and Felicity while they deal with Seldon." Oliver said as he went to change and then moved to leave.

"Hey, what are you going to do?" Laurel asked.

"I'm going to city hall." Oliver said and they all knew what that meant.

"Oliver, you yourself said going after Darhk is a suicide mission." John pointed out.

"Well, John, I'm not going to die tonight." Oliver said.

"Well, let me and Laurel go with you, back you up." John said.

"If things go bad, I need you to back the city up." Oliver said.

"Oliver, things aren't going to go bad. Your speech inspired all of us, too. It gave us hope again." Laurel said.

Acting more on impulse than anything else, Oliver pulled Laurel into his arms and kissed her passionately.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?" Laurel asked as the shock faded from everyone else and Thea just smiled before she and the others left.

"Just in case something happens tonight, I wanted to make sure I didn't die without doing that first. Now let's move." Oliver said with a smile as he left the bunker.

* * *

"DARHK!" Green Arrow roared as he entered the nexus chamber under city hall to see Darhk and his daughter there, just waiting for the end of world.

"What does a guy have to do to end the world in peace?" Darhk asked as he turned to face Green Arrow.

"Why is he here, Daddy?" Darhk's daughter asked.

"Oh, he came here to die, sweetheart. Clearly." Darhk said as he sent Green Arrow flying back the way he came.

"Ha ha ha! 15 minutes till the end of the world, and you want to spend them with me. I am touched." Darhk said as the fight poured out into the street.

"Even if you stop me, even if you could, those missiles are finding their targets. This is a mercy killing on a global scale. I'm sparing my daughter the pain of growing up without her mother and you the pain of having to live without your parents and everyone else that you've lost." Darhk said as he took Green Arrow into his grip, only to have something thrown at the back of his head and he turned to see the people of Star City, including survivors from his Ark, facing him.

"Let him go! Get out." A man said.

"For real?" Darhk asked.

"Get out of here. Get out!" More people began shouting.

"Get out of our town! We don't want you here! Get out of this town!" the man from the Ark shouted.

"This heartwarming display would mean a whole lot more had I not just seen you all tearing yourselves and your city apart. Aah! That is why I did this. Humanity is feckless, and I wanted to cleanse it of a millennia worth of rot it has been infected by, and I will do it!" Darhk said.

"No, you won't." Green Arrow said as he got to his feet and he could feel the hope of everyone in the city.

"Ok, just for fun, how are you going to stop me?"Darhk asked.

"Because it won't just be me who's going to stop you." Green Arrow said as fired an arrow and Darhk's magic did nothing to stop it from hitting his face, scratching it, causing Green Arrow to grin as he felt his eyes glow.

"It's not so easy without the magic, is it?" Green Arrow asked, since now it was a fair fight.

"Oh, I don't need magic. I'm a former member of the League of Assassins, or have you forgotten that?" Darhk asked.

"Remind me." Green Arrow said as the 2 clashed in battle.

* * *

Darhk had knocked Green Arrow back and knocked away both his bow and quiver before taking both the bow and one of the arrows and firing it into Green Arrow's shoulder.

"You may have taken out my magic, but I will still beat you." Darhk said, only to have the people of Star City rally around the Green Arrow..

"You brought friends. That's ok. So did I." Darhk said as Ghosts emerged onto the streets, only for one army to be met by another as the people of Star City joined Green Arrow in the fight.

As Green Arrow pulled the arrow out of his shoulder, he saw Quentin Lance hold out his hand to him, which he took and then Quentin helped him up as Black Canary, Spartan and Lyla joined them.

"I thought you and Donna?" Green Arrow asked.

"Don't worry, she's safe, but I had to come back to stand with my city, because this Oliver Queen guy gives a hell of a speech." Quentin said and Green Arrow smiled before turning to the others.

"You three were supposed to stay as backup." Green Arrow said.

"I already lost one brother." Spartan said.

"And I wasn't going to lose you again." Black Canary said.

Green Arrow smiled as he felt the tide of battle change and knew that now it was time to end this, once and for all.

"You three put down the Ghosts." Green Arrow said to Spartan, Black Canary and Lyla who nodded.

"You keep people safe." Green Arrow then said to Quentin, who also nodded.

"What about Darhk?" Spartan asked.

"Darhk's mine." Green Arrow said and they all nodded before engaging.

Green Arrow engaged Darhk and actually beat him to the ground before grabbing the collar of his suit jacket and hoisting him up.

"What are you going to do now, Oliver? Stop the posturing. We both know that you can't do spared the life of the man who killed your mother." Darhk reminded him.

"And you killed the woman I love. You killed tens of thousands of innocent people. With Slade Wilson, I had a choice. This time, I don't." Green Arrow said as he drove the arrow into Darhk's heart, just as Darhk had done to Laurel weeks ago, before dropping his body to the ground, dead. It was over. Damien Darhk was dead.


	15. Chapter 15

"It's going to take awhile to get this place cleaned up after that attack." Oliver said as the whole team converged back at the bunker.

"Well, I wish you guys the best of luck with that." Quentin said, causing Laurel to look at her father.

"You going home to my mama?" Felicity asked.

"Uh, yeah, to pack. We're leaving town for a while." Quentin said.

"Wait, why?" Laurel asked.

"IAB reached out. My suspension is no longer a suspension, but, uh, it's funny, you know, because, you know, being a cop's all I ever wanted, but when I got that call, I didn't feel a thing. All I could think about was you and your sister Laurel. About how close I've come to losing everything I care about. But thanks to Oliver here, I have both of you back and for that Oliver, I will always be grateful." Quentin said as he held out his hand, which Oliver shook and Laurel smiled since she could finally see her father and Oliver on the same page, before she hugged her dad and then he left.

"I hate to do this, but I'm leaving to." Felicity said.

"Wait, what?" Oliver asked her.

"I know I have a bad habit of doing this, but after what I did to Havenrock, I just don't think that I can continue to have to make those sort of choices anymore. I need to figure out how to deal with that guilt and I can't do it on this team while in this city. And since really all this city has for me now are painful memories, I'm leaving Star City and I'm going to try to reestablish a normal life out in Coast City." Felicity said.

Oliver nodded in understanding before saying "Remember, if you ever change your mind, you'll always have a place on this team waiting for you."

"Thank you Oliver and I hope that you can find someone who is able to handle being with you better than I did. And by the way, the loft's all yours once I'm done packing." Felicity said as she hugged her ex-boyfriend before leaving the room.

"Well, this is going to make me feel like I'm piling on." Thea said.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked.

"Well, I jumped straight out of the Lazarus Pit right into this, into-to Speedy, but, um, I've just been wondering if this is even who I really am, and then I threatened to kill a little girl, and I-I realized I'm my father's daughter, so I-I thought about mom and-and what she'd say to me if she were here. I think she'd tell me to get out Before I lost too much of myself. I'm sorry, Ollie." Thea said to her brother.

"Hey. Come here." Oliver said as he hugged his baby sister.

"You don't have to apologize to me, ever." Oliver said and Thea nodded before walking out after Quentin and Felicity.

"You know I only came here to help you defeat Damien Darhk, but now I must return to finding my own path, but should you ever need my help again, you know how to reach me." Nyssa said before walking out.

"What about you Roy?" Oliver asked.

"I spoke with Lyla earlier and she told me that the President has been informed of how I helped save the world from Genesis and she's granted me a full pardon, so I was hoping I could rejoin the team full time." Roy said.

Oliver smiled and said "Music to my ears Arsenal. It'll almost be like old times, the 4 of us."

That is until he saw the look on John's face.

"You ok?" Oliver asked his best friend.

"Not really. I told Lyla the truth about Andy." John said and Oliver understood where John was going with this.

"What'd she say?: Oliver asked.

"She's a soldier. She understood. But I don't, and I don't think I ever will." John said.

"What are you going to do?" Oliver asked, though he already had an idea.

"Take some time away from this team, away from the city To figure out where I went off track and how to get back on." John said and while Oliver had hoped he'd say otherwise, he still understood.

"John, I have never done this without you. You're the one who keeps me in line." Oliver pointed out.

"Oliver, I don't know if you've been watching lately, but it's been the other way around, man." John reminded him.

"Well, just remember, if you ever need anything, I'm just a call away." Oliver said and John nodded as he held out his hand, but Oliver did one better and actually hugged John goodbye and watched his oldest partner leave.

"What about you? I seem to recall you being the first one who originally wanted out after we took down Darhk so you could become the DA." Oliver asked Laurel.

"That was before I almost died and when I came back, I had an epiphany. This team has allowed me to do a lot more good for this city then I ever did as a lawyer. Plus, with my powers, I think it could be real asset. I'm not going anywhere" Laurel said.

Oliver smiled at her and Laurel could tell that was the answer he'd hoped for.

"I think I'll leave you 2 alone." Roy said before he left the room.

"So, what now?" Laurel asked.

"Well, I don't know about you, I was thinking, maybe dinner tonight at that restaurant we went to for our first date." Oliver said.

"Are you asking me out?" Laurel asked.

"Yeah, since Darhk is no longer an issue for us, I thought that maybe now we could finally start over with our relationship. You know, a clean slate." Oliver said.

Laurel smiled at him before saying "I'd love for nothing more. But I can tell that something's still bothering you. It's Felicity, Thea and John. Them leaving has to be a blow."

"And they're leaving because of their own personal darkness. I just can't help but think that maybe they were infected by mine." Oliver said, seriously ruining the mood of the moment.

"Maybe. Like you said, maybe you can't become a hero without succumbing to the darkness even a little bit, but you were able to defeat Darhk by giving the city its hope back." Laurel said.

"You're saying it's not black and white?" Oliver asked.

"I'm saying that there is a man who killed Darhk in cold blood, and that same man stood on top of a car and gave the city its hope back. What you're feeling isn't darkness. It's a schism. You're at war with two sides of yourself." Laurel said.

Before Oliver could respond, his phone vibrated.

"Hello." Oliver said as he answered it.

"Mr. Queen, this is Thomas Kemp. I chair the city council." the man on the other side of the call said.

"Yes, of course, councilman. What can I help you with?" Oliver asked.

"That impromptu speech you gave during the city's latest crisis got a lot of people's attention, and there's something I'd like to talk to you about." Kemp said.

* * *

"It's only an interim appointment. A proper election will be held in August, but given that you got 48% of the vote before as a write-in candidate, well, I think that's just a formality." Kemp said as he and Oliver walked through a hallway.

"I appreciate the optimism." Oliver said

"Are you sure about this? You look, well, conflicted." Kemp asked.

"Well, someone very close to me recently told me that I am But I am ready for this." Oliver assured him.

"Good. Shall we?" Kemp asked the 2 of them entered a room that was full of press, preparing to watch Oliver accept the role of mayor.

"Put your left hand on the Bible. Raise your right hand and recite the oath." Kemp said and Oliver did what he said.

"I, Oliver Queen, do solemnly swear to support the charter and laws of Star City and to faithfully and impartially perform and discharge the duties of the office of mayor according to the law and to the very best of my ability." Oliver said, still not entirely believing that this was really happening.

"Congratulations Mayor Queen." Kemp said as they shook hands.

* * *

 **Well, that's the end of the Canary Cry and yes, I will be writing a sequel to it based on Season 5 that I will have up as soon as I can. Hope you all liked this story.**


End file.
